During hospital operating and recuperating settings which use transducer monitoring devices, it is essential to position one or more transducers at the level of the patient's heart. These hospital settings include, but are not limited to, operating rooms, coronary care units, intensive care units, and cardiovascular units. The transducers are used to monitor the patient's hemodynamics parameters/pressures by taking readings at various sites such as the radial artery, pulmonary artery, central venous pressures and intra-cranial pressures. More accurate readings are obtained by the transducers if they are maintained at the level of the patient's heart. A transducer bracket normally supports or holds one or more transducers used in the hospital settings and thus must be oriented with reference to the patient's heart to achieve the desired relationship between each transducer and the level of the patient's heart.
The usual practice for achieving the proper relationship of the transducers to the heart is to mount the transducer bracket on a stationary, vertical, intravenous pole through use of a C-shaped clamp which is adjustable in vertical, up and down, directions upon the intravenous pole. When making an adjustment, it is necessary to loosen the C-shaped clamp, move it either up or down on the intravenous pole, and then to tighten the clamp upon the intravenous pole. In making such extremely difficult to position and maintain the transducers at the level of the patient's heart with any degree of precision.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,651 to Wergin et al is the only known United States patent which discloses a transducer mounting device. Wergin et al discloses a transducer mounting device secured to the frame of an operating table which moves with the frame to maintain a constant relationship between the transducers and the level of the patient's heart regardless of any lowering, raising, tilting or rotation of the operating table during surgery.
The prior art transducer mounting devices have the major disadvantage or drawback of not allowing the transducers to be readily and easily precisionally adjusted in vertical directions in the typical hospital settings which call for transducer monitoring.
The present invention overcomes this major disadvantage or drawback in that it incorporates rack and pinion mechanisms which allow the transducers to be readily and easily moved and locked in vertical directions in substantially all, if not all, of the typical hospital settings which might call for transducer monitoring.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive and easy to manufacture transducer mounting device for use in hospital settings calling for the monitoring of the patient's blood pressure.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a transducer mounting device which is precisionally adjustable to be readily and easily moved to achieve the desired relationship between the transducers and the level of the patient's heart in numerous hospital settings.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a transducer mounting device for supporting a transducer bracket and one or more transducers to allow the precision adjustment of the transducer bracket and the transducers secured thereto relative to the level of the heart of the patient positioned in one or more hospital settings.
These objects as well as other aspects, objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after reading the following description of the preferred embodiment in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.